It's been over three months since I left the Guild. I've been living peacefully by Pale Azure Lake, so quiet it feels as though I've forgotten the passage of time.
Each day I wake up and wander through the wheat fields or drift across the lake, fishing, grilling, and savoring the meals I've prepared with my own hands.
The aroma of grilled fish mingles with the fruity smoke of burning wood, making my mouth water. As I tear a piece of meat from the fish's back and pop it into my mouth, dusk falls over the lake- and in that moment, a pale azure glimmer flashes before my eyes.

I think of Asterleeds' artisans, those who go to great lengths using data and logic to map out the world. If they were tasked with measuring this very lake, they'd probably cast a great net woven from intellect across it-run a series of calculations, then announce they'd uncovered the lake's secrets. But what they'd end up with are only numbers, formulas, and hypotheses.

The true blue of the lake would vanish beneath that net, completely hidden.
There's no denying the Artisan Guild's technology is advanced. But do we really need such technology? People often say that inheriting the technology of the Bapharian Divine is meant to bring happiness to humankind. Yet in Asterleeds, homes grow ever more crowded. Instead of joy, there's a growing undercurrent of anxiety-everyone fears being replaced. What was once called "progress together" has become a frantic rat race.

And then, an absurd image flashed through my mind: A group of people straining to push a machine forward-just to produce a product labeled "happiness."
Behind it stands a chain of even more machines, all lined up to keep that happiness going. People toil tirelessly within them, making sure the gears keep turning. But are they really happy? And where does all that manufactured happiness actually go? Is it just to keep the machines working?

I don't have an answer. And truthfully, I'm not sure I want one. Right now, I'm sitting by Pale Azure Lake, watching the fish grill, savoring the stillness of dusk and water.
Perhaps, the answer is hidden within the pale azure itself.